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Curious George at the Zoo gallery

What parents need to know

Ease of play

Although the design looks intuitive, the features across the games are not easy to use. For example, as kids try to clean the animals in the Sunny Safari, it will be challenging for them to switch the cleaning tools to complete the game.

Violence & scariness

Not applicable

Sexy stuff

Not applicable

Language

Not applicable

Consumerism

One region, Sunny Safari, comes with the app; kids can move through the region relatively quickly. If you want additional regions, they'll cost you 99 cents each via in-app purchase. A very large button encourages kids to "Tap to Purchase New Region!" Also, the Curious George franchise includes books, a TV show, movies, music, toys, and more.

Drinking, drugs, & smoking

Not applicable

Privacy & safety

Not applicable

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Curious George at the Zoo is a very basic app about animals based on the popular children’s books. Guided by the Man in the Yellow Hat, kids play with hippos, elephants, and parrots in the Sunny Safari, and wash animals in the Safari Showers. Kids can also tilt the device to wake animals up and watch short video clips about each animal in the safari. When kids finish the Sunny Safari (which will not take long), they may want to visit other regions in the app. At the time of this review, one other region was available as an in-app purchase, and two other regions were "Coming Soon."

What kids can learn

Subjects

Science

animals

Skills

Thinking & Reasoning

applying information

What Kids Can Learn

Kids can learn about zoo animals such as elephants, lions, and hippos at the zoo as they apply the Man in the Yellow Hat’s instructions to the activities and watch videos about the animals. While young kids can learn a little bit about the animals and work on fine motor skills as they interact with the device, they could benefit a lot from more variety in activities as well as more constructive feedback. Curious George at the Zoo has a lot of missed opportunities for learning.

What kids can learn

Subjects

Science

animals

Skills

Thinking & Reasoning

applying information

Kids can learn about zoo animals such as elephants, lions, and hippos at the zoo as they apply the Man in the Yellow Hat’s instructions to the activities and watch videos about the animals. While young kids can learn a little bit about the animals and work on fine motor skills as they interact with the device, they could benefit a lot from more variety in activities as well as more constructive feedback. Curious George at the Zoo has a lot of missed opportunities for learning.

User reviews

Parents say

Kids say

What's it about?

In Curious George at The Zoo kids visit different regions of the zoo to play with animals. In Sunny Safari, kids choose an animal (hippo, parrot, giraffe, lion, or elephant) to clean; they can also watch a video about the animal. In the Safari Showers mini-game, kids pick an animal to hose based on a clue from the Man in the Yellow Hat ("Clean the animal with spots.") Kids earn stickers for a sticker book, and can import a photo from the device as a background. You can buy other regions to explore, such as Deep Freeze and Old McDonald's Farm.

Is it any good?

QUALITY

Curious George at the Zoo will entertain fans of the character as they explore the zoo and use features of the device to interact with the animals. But overall, the activities could be further developed to incorporate constructive feedback and accommodate users of different skill levels. Since kids are just repeating the same activity with each animal, the sense of challenge is lost as they master each task.

The one region that comes with the app doesn't feel very substantial, and encouraging kids to buy more regions with such a prominent purchase button is inappropriate for the targeted age. For kids who can't get enough of Curious George, this app may be entertaining, but there's not enough there for kids who aren't diehard fans.

Families can talk about...

Visit the library with your kid to read up on the featured animals, their natural habitats, how they clean themselves, etc.

Visit the zoo and find the animals kids learned about in the app.

Read the book Curious George Visits the Zoo. Do any parts of the book seem familiar after playing the app?

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The age displayed for each title is the minimum one for which it's developmentally appropriate. We recently updated all of our reviews to show only this age, rather than the multi-color "slider." Get more information about our ratings.

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